In the coming decades, renewables are expected to gradually replace petrochemical-based industrial products, including polymers. Production of plastics from biopolymers offers the potential to replace non-renewable materials derived from petroleum with renewable resources, resulting in reliable (domestic) supplies, jobs in rural communities, sustainable production, lower greenhouse gas production, and competitive prices.
In response to an increased awareness of global environmental problems, PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)) is gaining serious attention as a potential substitute for non-biodegradable polymers. The current rise of the oil and natural gas prices is reflected in the plastics market, and is making renewable bioplastics more competitive. However, prices of raw materials for the production of bioplastics based on bacterial fermentation are also increasing.
According to some reports, the cost of production of bioplastics by bacterial fermentation, especially when energy and materials consumed for the production of fertilizers, pesticides, transport, and process energy are factored in, is higher than that of photosynthetically produced plastics, for which no raw material and fossil-fuel energy is required and that take up CO2 from the environment. Thus, biopolymers produced from autotrophic cyanobacteria that generate their own fixed-carbon sources are likely to have an ever-increasing advantage over the production of biopolymers by fermentation.